Women Forbidden From ＂Climbing Tall Trees＂： Insecurity and Biological Asymmetry in Urhobo Sex Proverbs  

作　　者：Emeka C. Ifesieh Moses E. Darah 

机构地区：[1]Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria

出　　处：《Sino-US English Teaching》2013年第7期573-582,共10页中美英语教学（英文版）

摘　　要：Insecurity and asymmetry in all their ramifications are ideological. They are also inherently communicative processes that are largely constructed and enacted through language in various institutional discourses. In Urhobo, sex proverbs copiously couch the ideological conceptualizations of the male-female biological asymmetry. Studies on Urhobo proverbs dwell largely on functional applications and documentations of the proverbs, thereby overlooking their ideological underpinnings. Therefore, in this paper, efforts are geared toward investigating and unravelling ideologies that have been habitualized in the semantic and pragmatic structures of the Urhobo sex proverbs. The intention is to throw open the patterns of relationship between the male and female participants in the society in relation to sex matters and power. Twenty-six Urhobo indigenes （six males and 20 females）, who are competent in the socioculture and language were successfully interviewed to elicit Urhobo sex proverbs. Proverbs that contain the following lexical items： penis, virgina, to make love, or to have sex are purposively selected and subjected to CDA （critical discourse analysis）. The main assumption of CDA is that language is both the site and the stake in the struggle for power and domination. Findings show that in the Urhobo sex proverbs, there is asymmetry in access to sexual relations between the male and female. Although the sex proverbs do not always refer to copulation, they are often employed as powerful instruments to dominate and instil fear in the female participant. Consequently, patriarchal discourses are further entrenched in the society

关 键 词：biological asymmetry semantic and pragmatic structures PENIS virgina CDA （critical discourseanalysis） 

分 类 号：Q-0[生物学] R167[医药卫生—公共卫生与预防医学]